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Definition: Dolby

(Dolby Laboratories, Wiltshire, England, www.dolby.com) An audio research laboratory founded in 1965 in London by American engineer and physicist Ray Dolby. The company introduced its noise reduction system for tape recording in that same year, which became known as Dolby A and has been widely used in music recording as well as movie theater soundtracks. Dolby B and C, introduced in 1968 and 1981 respectively, were geared for consumer audio tapes.

In 1986, Dolby SR (Spectral Recording) added signal processing techniques that doubled the noise reduction of Dolby A for professional use. Its derivative, Dolby S, is found in high-end cassette decks. Dolby circuits have been used in millions of audio tape recorders and players to eliminate the annoying hiss and improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of analog tapes.

Starting in the 1970s, Dolby's analog and digital audio encoding technologies have been mainstream audio formats for movie theaters and home theater systems. See Dolby Surround and Dolby Digital.